Microsoft said Wednesday that another one of its operating system products is vulnerable to a critical vulnerability, first patched two weeks ago.
In an update to its MS08-001 security bulletin, Microsoft said that the latest release of Windows Small Business Server was also critically at risk from a bug in Windows' networking software.
The flaw is also considered critical for Windows XP and Vista users. Microsoft did not say why it had initially omitted Small Business Server from its list of critically affected operating systems, but it said that the product's users were being offered patches via Microsoft's various automatic update services. "Customers with Windows Small Business Server 2003 Service Pack 2 should apply the update to remain secure," Microsoft said in its updated bulletin.
The bug lies in the way Windows processes networking traffic that uses IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) and MLD (Multicast Listener Discovery) protocols, which are used to send data to many systems at the same time. Microsoft said that an attacker could send specially crafted packets to a victim's machine, which could then allow the attacker to run unauthorized code on a system.
Microsoft rates the flaw as "important" for Windows Server 2003, meaning that it would be more difficult for attackers to exploit the flaw on this operating system.
Security experts are paying particular attention to this vulnerability because it could be exploited by attackers to create a self-replicating worm attack.
The flaw is not being exploited in online attacks, but last week researchers at penetration-testing-software vendor Immunity made a sample exploit available to their customers. That software causes an unpatched system to crash, but the company is close to developing code that could be used to install unauthorized software on a victim's computer, according to Immunity Chief Technology Officer Dave Aitel.
Aitel said it's no surprise that the small business version of Windows Server 2003 is at risk.
"I assumed most 2003 servers in the real world were vulnerable," he said via instant message. "Windows Server 2003 by default does not have any multicast addresses active and would not be affected by this vulnerability. However, installing applications that use multicasting could cause the operating system to become vulnerable."
He said that Microsoft could help its customers by giving them more details on how to avoid being at risk to this problem. "What features can I enable on Windows Server 2003 to become vulnerable?" he asked.
Friday, January 25, 2008
JBoss alumni launch open-source startup
A startup founded by former JBoss developers will come out of stealth mode Monday to announce a new product designed to help businesses zero in on their best sales leads.
The startup, called LoopFuse, has developed a lead generation product that is offered as a paid on-demand service or as open-source software that can be downloaded for free and installed on-site.
The Atlanta-based company is entering a growing market where it will compete with several other small providers, along with established players like Eloqua, based in Toronto. LoopFuse hopes to distinguish itself with its open-source model, which it said will allow it to price its service lower than rivals' services.
Lead generation products track the activities of potential customers on a company's Web site and use factors like their job titles and activities on the site to assign "lead scores," which help salespeople to target their efforts. The products work in tandem with customer relationship management software.
Kim Collins, a research vice president with Gartner, said interest in such products is growing in all industries. The challenge for new companies like LoopFuse -- and for customers -- is that many small companies are offering similar products, each with a slightly different twist.
"They each do things a bit differently and utilize different channels for [lead] generation and distribution (e.g., Web, sales, e-mail). Some focus more on workflow and process. Others focus more on analytics and scoring. It makes the vendors and their solutions hard to directly compare," Collins said via e-mail.
LoopFuse was founded early last year by Tom Elrod and Roy Russo, who each spent three years at JBoss, the Java server vendor acquired by Red Hat. Elrod was lead architect for JBoss Remote and Russo cofounded the JBoss Portal, according to LoopFuse's Web site.
The company has quietly rolled out its product to a handful of customers over the past year. On Monday it plans to launch a new release and start marketing itself more actively.
The product, called LoopFuse OneView, includes tools for e-mail marketing, Web analytics, managing campaigns and scoring and prioritizing leads, among other things. The new release, version 3.0, will add lead management and lead nurturing tools, a spokesman said. The software is released under the GNU General Public License.
LoopFuse hopes to shake up the economies of the market. The open-source model can help vendors reduce their costs by drawing on existing software components and contributions from users.
LoopFuse OneView will be priced at US$300 per month for an unlimited number of users, although usage will be capped at about 2,500 e-mails and 100,000 page hits, said Matt Asay, an adviser to LoopFuse who is also a vice president with content management company Alfresco. Users will be able to pay more to lift the cap, he said.
That pricing compares favorably to Eloqua. Its service starts at $3,000 per month for a team of about five users, but with no limits on e-mail or page views, said Thor Johnson, Eloqua's senior vice president of marketing.
Still, Johnson said he was unconcerned with LoopForce, noting that he already has a plethora of smaller rivals. Eloqua has a battle-tested service that is being used by more than 400 customers, he said, including Nokia Enterprise Solutions, Sybase and Red Hat. It also has some capabilities that LoopFuse does not, such as direct-mail marketing, he said.
Eloqua was founded in 2000 and recently closed a $23 million funding round, which it will use to expand in Europe and Asia. Johnson questioned the ability of startups like LoopFuse to serve global businesses, or to scale quickly enough to handle big customers. "We're processing more transactions than the Nasdaq," he said.
LoopFuse will be hoping to parlay its JBoss connections and the rising confidence in open-source software to its advantage. It has partnered with open-source company SugarCRM, allowing customers to use a complete open-source stack for marketing and sales.
"While our proprietary competitors tread water, and ask you to empty your wallets for 8+ year-old brittle-ware, we're busy innovating, innovating, and innovating, by applying open source principles and methodologies to every facet of our products and business," LoopFuse said in its blog last year.
The startup, called LoopFuse, has developed a lead generation product that is offered as a paid on-demand service or as open-source software that can be downloaded for free and installed on-site.
The Atlanta-based company is entering a growing market where it will compete with several other small providers, along with established players like Eloqua, based in Toronto. LoopFuse hopes to distinguish itself with its open-source model, which it said will allow it to price its service lower than rivals' services.
Lead generation products track the activities of potential customers on a company's Web site and use factors like their job titles and activities on the site to assign "lead scores," which help salespeople to target their efforts. The products work in tandem with customer relationship management software.
Kim Collins, a research vice president with Gartner, said interest in such products is growing in all industries. The challenge for new companies like LoopFuse -- and for customers -- is that many small companies are offering similar products, each with a slightly different twist.
"They each do things a bit differently and utilize different channels for [lead] generation and distribution (e.g., Web, sales, e-mail). Some focus more on workflow and process. Others focus more on analytics and scoring. It makes the vendors and their solutions hard to directly compare," Collins said via e-mail.
LoopFuse was founded early last year by Tom Elrod and Roy Russo, who each spent three years at JBoss, the Java server vendor acquired by Red Hat. Elrod was lead architect for JBoss Remote and Russo cofounded the JBoss Portal, according to LoopFuse's Web site.
The company has quietly rolled out its product to a handful of customers over the past year. On Monday it plans to launch a new release and start marketing itself more actively.
The product, called LoopFuse OneView, includes tools for e-mail marketing, Web analytics, managing campaigns and scoring and prioritizing leads, among other things. The new release, version 3.0, will add lead management and lead nurturing tools, a spokesman said. The software is released under the GNU General Public License.
LoopFuse hopes to shake up the economies of the market. The open-source model can help vendors reduce their costs by drawing on existing software components and contributions from users.
LoopFuse OneView will be priced at US$300 per month for an unlimited number of users, although usage will be capped at about 2,500 e-mails and 100,000 page hits, said Matt Asay, an adviser to LoopFuse who is also a vice president with content management company Alfresco. Users will be able to pay more to lift the cap, he said.
That pricing compares favorably to Eloqua. Its service starts at $3,000 per month for a team of about five users, but with no limits on e-mail or page views, said Thor Johnson, Eloqua's senior vice president of marketing.
Still, Johnson said he was unconcerned with LoopForce, noting that he already has a plethora of smaller rivals. Eloqua has a battle-tested service that is being used by more than 400 customers, he said, including Nokia Enterprise Solutions, Sybase and Red Hat. It also has some capabilities that LoopFuse does not, such as direct-mail marketing, he said.
Eloqua was founded in 2000 and recently closed a $23 million funding round, which it will use to expand in Europe and Asia. Johnson questioned the ability of startups like LoopFuse to serve global businesses, or to scale quickly enough to handle big customers. "We're processing more transactions than the Nasdaq," he said.
LoopFuse will be hoping to parlay its JBoss connections and the rising confidence in open-source software to its advantage. It has partnered with open-source company SugarCRM, allowing customers to use a complete open-source stack for marketing and sales.
"While our proprietary competitors tread water, and ask you to empty your wallets for 8+ year-old brittle-ware, we're busy innovating, innovating, and innovating, by applying open source principles and methodologies to every facet of our products and business," LoopFuse said in its blog last year.
EBay beats Street, Meg Whitman to retire
EBay exceeded Wall Street's earnings and revenue expectations for its fourth quarter and, as expected, announced that Meg Whitman will step down as president and CEO at the end of March, ending a 10-year tenure at the helm of the e-commerce giant.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2007, eBay had revenue of US$2.18 billion, up $461 million from the fourth quarter of 2006 and above the $2.14 billion consensus estimate from analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
Revenue grew across the board, but PayPal, StubHub, Skype and advertising performed particularly well, as eBay enjoyed strong sales during the 2007 holiday season, the company said Wednesday.
Net income was $531 million, or $0.39 per share, up from $346 million, or $0.25 per share, in 2006's fourth quarter. On a pro-forma basis, which includes one-time items, net income was $611 million, or $0.45 per share, topping the consensus expectation by $0.04.
Whitman will hand over her CEO and president titles on March 31, but she will remain on the company's board of directors. She will be succeeded by John Donahoe.
In a conference call to discuss the financial results, Donahoe said the eBay marketplace business isn't growing as fast as he would like, and that a priority is to make it "easier and safer to use."
"Buyers have become accustomed to streamlined purchasing experiences that put a premium on speed, convenience and reliability," he said. "While we've made strides in these areas, I'm clear we need to do much more."
He's ready to be aggressive about making changes to eBay's buying and selling experience to meet users' expectations, he said.
EBay, which started as an auction site, later added fixed-price items to its marketplace, but it is still viewed by many mainstream online buyers as complicated to navigate and not safe enough, when compared with more traditional e-commerce sites like Amazon.com.
At the same time, Amazon.com has been invading eBay's territory by letting small merchants set up shop on its site via the Amazon Marketplace service, and providing more safeguards and guarantees to buyers than eBay does.
According to Donahoe, eBay will continue its attempts to attract new mainstream buyers to its marketplace this year. "Watch for us to make some exciting announcements about feedback, new user-protection programs, customer support and pricing," he said.
Along these lines, he will also focus on balancing the excitement and value of auctions with the convenience of fixed-price items, which may require significant changes to the eBay marketplace, customer approach and business model, he said.
Meanwhile, Whitman said her plan all along had been to lead the company for about 10 years and then give up the reins. "I'm extremely proud of eBay's performance in 2007, but more than that I'm very confident about our future," she said.
Whitman joined eBay in March 1998, when the company operated only in the U.S. and had 30 employees and $4.7 million in annual revenue. It now operates worldwide with more than 15,000 employees and almost $7.7 billion in revenue.
Donahoe has been with eBay since February 2005, coming from Bain & Company, where he was worldwide managing director since 1999. He is president of eBay Marketplaces, which generates more than 70 percent of the company’s global revenue.
For the full year, eBay had $7.7 billion in revenue, up 29 percent from almost $6 billion in 2006. Net income, which includes a $1.4 billion writedown of Skype's value announced in October, was $348 million, or $0.25 per share, down from $1.13 billion, or $0.79 per share, in 2006. On a pro-forma basis, net income came in at $2.11 billion, or $1.53 per share.
Rajiv Dutta, PayPal's president, has been named eBay executive vice president and will also replace Donahoe as president of eBay Marketplaces. Scott Thompson, PayPal’s CTO, will take over as PayPal president.
Meanwhile, Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, will step down and retire from the company at the end of the year. Lorrie Norrington, currently president of eBay International, will become president of eBay Marketplaces Operations and assume Cobb's responsibilities, eBay said.
EBay expects that in 2008 net revenue will range between $8.5 billion and $8.75 billion, earnings per share in the range of $1.27 to $1.31 and pro-forma earnings per share in the range of $1.63 to $1.67.
For 2008's first quarter, eBay expects net revenue between $2 billion to $2.05 billion, earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.28 to $0.30 and pro-forma earnings per share in the range of $0.37 to $0.39.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2007, eBay had revenue of US$2.18 billion, up $461 million from the fourth quarter of 2006 and above the $2.14 billion consensus estimate from analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
Revenue grew across the board, but PayPal, StubHub, Skype and advertising performed particularly well, as eBay enjoyed strong sales during the 2007 holiday season, the company said Wednesday.
Net income was $531 million, or $0.39 per share, up from $346 million, or $0.25 per share, in 2006's fourth quarter. On a pro-forma basis, which includes one-time items, net income was $611 million, or $0.45 per share, topping the consensus expectation by $0.04.
Whitman will hand over her CEO and president titles on March 31, but she will remain on the company's board of directors. She will be succeeded by John Donahoe.
In a conference call to discuss the financial results, Donahoe said the eBay marketplace business isn't growing as fast as he would like, and that a priority is to make it "easier and safer to use."
"Buyers have become accustomed to streamlined purchasing experiences that put a premium on speed, convenience and reliability," he said. "While we've made strides in these areas, I'm clear we need to do much more."
He's ready to be aggressive about making changes to eBay's buying and selling experience to meet users' expectations, he said.
EBay, which started as an auction site, later added fixed-price items to its marketplace, but it is still viewed by many mainstream online buyers as complicated to navigate and not safe enough, when compared with more traditional e-commerce sites like Amazon.com.
At the same time, Amazon.com has been invading eBay's territory by letting small merchants set up shop on its site via the Amazon Marketplace service, and providing more safeguards and guarantees to buyers than eBay does.
According to Donahoe, eBay will continue its attempts to attract new mainstream buyers to its marketplace this year. "Watch for us to make some exciting announcements about feedback, new user-protection programs, customer support and pricing," he said.
Along these lines, he will also focus on balancing the excitement and value of auctions with the convenience of fixed-price items, which may require significant changes to the eBay marketplace, customer approach and business model, he said.
Meanwhile, Whitman said her plan all along had been to lead the company for about 10 years and then give up the reins. "I'm extremely proud of eBay's performance in 2007, but more than that I'm very confident about our future," she said.
Whitman joined eBay in March 1998, when the company operated only in the U.S. and had 30 employees and $4.7 million in annual revenue. It now operates worldwide with more than 15,000 employees and almost $7.7 billion in revenue.
Donahoe has been with eBay since February 2005, coming from Bain & Company, where he was worldwide managing director since 1999. He is president of eBay Marketplaces, which generates more than 70 percent of the company’s global revenue.
For the full year, eBay had $7.7 billion in revenue, up 29 percent from almost $6 billion in 2006. Net income, which includes a $1.4 billion writedown of Skype's value announced in October, was $348 million, or $0.25 per share, down from $1.13 billion, or $0.79 per share, in 2006. On a pro-forma basis, net income came in at $2.11 billion, or $1.53 per share.
Rajiv Dutta, PayPal's president, has been named eBay executive vice president and will also replace Donahoe as president of eBay Marketplaces. Scott Thompson, PayPal’s CTO, will take over as PayPal president.
Meanwhile, Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, will step down and retire from the company at the end of the year. Lorrie Norrington, currently president of eBay International, will become president of eBay Marketplaces Operations and assume Cobb's responsibilities, eBay said.
EBay expects that in 2008 net revenue will range between $8.5 billion and $8.75 billion, earnings per share in the range of $1.27 to $1.31 and pro-forma earnings per share in the range of $1.63 to $1.67.
For 2008's first quarter, eBay expects net revenue between $2 billion to $2.05 billion, earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.28 to $0.30 and pro-forma earnings per share in the range of $0.37 to $0.39.
Vista SP1 due out in next few weeks, sources say
The wait is nearly over for the first service pack for Windows Vista, according to sources close to Microsoft.
Microsoft has said the highly anticipated service pack would be out in the first quarter of this year, but some say it could be available in the next few weeks, more than a month before the quarter ends on March 31.
A Taiwanese news outlet Wednesday reported in a story that Vista SP1 would be released Feb. 15, but "that date is as good as any other," said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. "For all we know, they could make it available tomorrow."
Through its public relations agency Wednesday, Microsoft declined to comment on the Feb. 15 date beyond reiterating the software would be available in the first quarter. Still, several sources who work closely with Microsoft said a mid-February release is not unlikely, and they expect the software to be out before the end of March.
Chris Swenson, director of software industry analysis for the NPD Group, said that analysts have heard Feb. 15 as the target for SP1, but it's not something Microsoft would confirm publicly to give itself time to make adjustments in case of negative feedback on the current release of the software.
Microsoft released Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC) in December, but then refreshed that software in a public release earlier this month.
Several Microsoft partners said they could not confirm Feb. 15 as the date for SP1's release, but said they expect the software soon for a number of reasons.
One of those is the strength of the release candidate, said Brian Randell, a senior consultant with MCW Technologies in Los Angeles. He has been using the SP1 RC and it's stable and running well so, "I can't see why [the final release] wouldn't be out soon."
Microsoft's hesitancy to give a firm date for SP1 means the company is confident it can get the final release out on time, said Andrew Brust, chief, new technology for consulting firm twentysix New York. However, he agreed with NPD's Swenson that the company wants to give itself room for last-minute changes. "They are not ready to promise anything beyond Q1," he said. Brust is a regional director of Microsoft partners and works closely with the company.
Many believe the SP1 milestone is the one that will bring about a new wave of adoption for Vista, especially among business customers that have been awaiting the service pack's release before updating employee desktops. The combination of SP1 and Windows Server 2008, due out on Feb. 27, is expected to bode well for Vista adoption in the enterprise and medium-sized business sectors.
One date Cherry said Microsoft probably won't release SP1 is the next Patch Tuesday, Feb. 12. Patch Tuesday refers to the second Tuesday of every month when Microsoft sends out software patches and updates via its automatic updating services.
"Hopefully, they would keep the release of monthly patches separate from the release of a service pack," Cherry said.
Microsoft has said the highly anticipated service pack would be out in the first quarter of this year, but some say it could be available in the next few weeks, more than a month before the quarter ends on March 31.
A Taiwanese news outlet Wednesday reported in a story that Vista SP1 would be released Feb. 15, but "that date is as good as any other," said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. "For all we know, they could make it available tomorrow."
Through its public relations agency Wednesday, Microsoft declined to comment on the Feb. 15 date beyond reiterating the software would be available in the first quarter. Still, several sources who work closely with Microsoft said a mid-February release is not unlikely, and they expect the software to be out before the end of March.
Chris Swenson, director of software industry analysis for the NPD Group, said that analysts have heard Feb. 15 as the target for SP1, but it's not something Microsoft would confirm publicly to give itself time to make adjustments in case of negative feedback on the current release of the software.
Microsoft released Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC) in December, but then refreshed that software in a public release earlier this month.
Several Microsoft partners said they could not confirm Feb. 15 as the date for SP1's release, but said they expect the software soon for a number of reasons.
One of those is the strength of the release candidate, said Brian Randell, a senior consultant with MCW Technologies in Los Angeles. He has been using the SP1 RC and it's stable and running well so, "I can't see why [the final release] wouldn't be out soon."
Microsoft's hesitancy to give a firm date for SP1 means the company is confident it can get the final release out on time, said Andrew Brust, chief, new technology for consulting firm twentysix New York. However, he agreed with NPD's Swenson that the company wants to give itself room for last-minute changes. "They are not ready to promise anything beyond Q1," he said. Brust is a regional director of Microsoft partners and works closely with the company.
Many believe the SP1 milestone is the one that will bring about a new wave of adoption for Vista, especially among business customers that have been awaiting the service pack's release before updating employee desktops. The combination of SP1 and Windows Server 2008, due out on Feb. 27, is expected to bode well for Vista adoption in the enterprise and medium-sized business sectors.
One date Cherry said Microsoft probably won't release SP1 is the next Patch Tuesday, Feb. 12. Patch Tuesday refers to the second Tuesday of every month when Microsoft sends out software patches and updates via its automatic updating services.
"Hopefully, they would keep the release of monthly patches separate from the release of a service pack," Cherry said.
Skype glitch leaves some users at risk from video bug
Some Skype users were left vulnerable to a possible worm attack Wednesday after company technicians failed to disable a buggy component of the network.
Skype pulled the plug on its "Add Video to Chat" feature Tuesday after security researcher Aviv Raff reported that it suffered from a serious vulnerability. An attacker could create a self-copying worm program that could be used to install malicious software on victims' machines and then go on to infect other Skype users.
"Add Video to Chat" lets users pick videos from two sites -- Dailymotion.com and Metacafe.com -- and add them to their Skype chat sessions.
Skype blocked access to these sites Tuesday after Raff's disclosure, effectively disabling the feature.
But because of a misconfigured Skype proxy server, some users were still allowed to access the Metacafe videos, leaving them vulnerable to an attack, said Raff, who had been in discussions with Skype engineering staff over this issue.
Because Raff has not publicly released his exploit code, the oversight probably doesn't pose a serious security risk for most Skype users, Raff noted.
Skype expects to patch the underlying vulnerability sometime next week, said a spokeswoman for Metacafe. That's later than previously expected. On Tuesday, Metacafe said that a patch was due early Wednesday morning.
Metacafe believes it's unlikely that an attacker could successfully exploit the flaw in a widespread attack, but with Raff's proof of concept code, a Skype user has to simply click on a maliciously crafted Web link in order to be infected.
According to Raff, Skype uses a Windows Internet Explorer (IE) component with an inappropriate security setting. Instead of rendering HTML from the Internet with the more secure "Internet Zone" security setting, Skype uses IE's "Local Zone" security setting, usually reserved for more trustworthy content.
Skype representatives did not return calls seeking comment for this story.
Skype pulled the plug on its "Add Video to Chat" feature Tuesday after security researcher Aviv Raff reported that it suffered from a serious vulnerability. An attacker could create a self-copying worm program that could be used to install malicious software on victims' machines and then go on to infect other Skype users.
"Add Video to Chat" lets users pick videos from two sites -- Dailymotion.com and Metacafe.com -- and add them to their Skype chat sessions.
Skype blocked access to these sites Tuesday after Raff's disclosure, effectively disabling the feature.
But because of a misconfigured Skype proxy server, some users were still allowed to access the Metacafe videos, leaving them vulnerable to an attack, said Raff, who had been in discussions with Skype engineering staff over this issue.
Because Raff has not publicly released his exploit code, the oversight probably doesn't pose a serious security risk for most Skype users, Raff noted.
Skype expects to patch the underlying vulnerability sometime next week, said a spokeswoman for Metacafe. That's later than previously expected. On Tuesday, Metacafe said that a patch was due early Wednesday morning.
Metacafe believes it's unlikely that an attacker could successfully exploit the flaw in a widespread attack, but with Raff's proof of concept code, a Skype user has to simply click on a maliciously crafted Web link in order to be infected.
According to Raff, Skype uses a Windows Internet Explorer (IE) component with an inappropriate security setting. Instead of rendering HTML from the Internet with the more secure "Internet Zone" security setting, Skype uses IE's "Local Zone" security setting, usually reserved for more trustworthy content.
Skype representatives did not return calls seeking comment for this story.
International growth boosts Symantec earnings
With strong international sales and growth in its services business, Symantec reported earnings Wednesday that beat analyst expectations.
Excluding charges, revenue at the security and storage company grew 15 percent year over year, to US$1.53 billion for the period ended Dec 28. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $1.45 billion, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Financial. Earnings were $0.33 per share, ahead of the analyst estimate of $0.28 per share.
Symantec's international revenue -- which represents more than half of the company's business -- grew by 21 percent year over year, Symantec said. The Europe, Middle East and Africa region was the fastest-growing, with revenues up 26 percent from the previous year. Revenue in Asia grew by 19 percent, the company said.
Service sales totalled just 6 percent of Symantec's revenue, but they grew by 40 percent from the previous year.The company's consumer and enterprise security businesses grew by just 8 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Symantec's data center management group saw sales jump 11 percent over the same period.
Symantec raised guidance for its full fiscal year 2008, which ends March 28. It now expects revenue to be in the range of $5.90 billion to $5.94 billion, with earnings per share between $1.24 and $1.26. Analysts had been expecting annual revenue of around $5.79 billion with earnings per share at $1.16, according to Thomson.
The company's shares leapt more than 7 percent on the results in after-hours trading, reaching $16.40 late Wednesday afternoon.
Excluding charges, revenue at the security and storage company grew 15 percent year over year, to US$1.53 billion for the period ended Dec 28. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $1.45 billion, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Financial. Earnings were $0.33 per share, ahead of the analyst estimate of $0.28 per share.
Symantec's international revenue -- which represents more than half of the company's business -- grew by 21 percent year over year, Symantec said. The Europe, Middle East and Africa region was the fastest-growing, with revenues up 26 percent from the previous year. Revenue in Asia grew by 19 percent, the company said.
Service sales totalled just 6 percent of Symantec's revenue, but they grew by 40 percent from the previous year.The company's consumer and enterprise security businesses grew by just 8 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Symantec's data center management group saw sales jump 11 percent over the same period.
Symantec raised guidance for its full fiscal year 2008, which ends March 28. It now expects revenue to be in the range of $5.90 billion to $5.94 billion, with earnings per share between $1.24 and $1.26. Analysts had been expecting annual revenue of around $5.79 billion with earnings per share at $1.16, according to Thomson.
The company's shares leapt more than 7 percent on the results in after-hours trading, reaching $16.40 late Wednesday afternoon.
As US spectrum auction opens, questions linger
One of the major questions as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission kicks off a multibillion-dollar spectrum auction Thursday is whether the auction will produce a winning bidder that will challenge telecom and cable-based broadband providers with a national wireless broadband network.
Other questions will also be answered in coming weeks as the auctions, for 62MHz of long-range, high-speed spectrum, unfold. Will Google or another bidder buy enough spectrum to launch a "third pipe" broadband network? Will any bidders step forward and pledge to build a nationwide broadband and voice network for emergency response agencies?
The bids to watch in the 700MHz auctions are for the C block, a 22MHz band of spectrum broken up into 12 regional licenses, and the D block, 10MHz of auctioned spectrum paired with another 10MHz set aside for a combined national commercial/emergency response agency network. Startup Frontline Wireless, one of the primary backers of the public-private model for an emergency responder network, announced in December that it had ceased operations.
"The pull-out of Frontline leaves the whole D Block auction up in the air," analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates said in an e-mail. "There is no way to know if a last minute group will come on board. While the goal of establishing a universal network for public safety/security is a laudable goal, it is not the most lucrative area from a pure business perspective, so it is not clear how much demand there might be or who might step up to the plate to make this work."
The FCC may have made a mistake in adopting the plan by Frontline, a company with former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt as its vice chairman, said Carlyn Taylor, a senior managing director in business consultancy FTI's corporate finance practice.
"I'm not sure how well [Frontline's plan] hung together from a financial standpoint," Taylor said. "I'm not sure anybody else is going to try to do what Frontline says they were going to do. There doesn't seem to be anybody else with a similar approach."
If any other company bids on the D block, it will be much less than the FCC would have received without the national public safety network build-out rules, Taylor said.
But the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), the nonprofit group of emergency response agency representatives that controls the public safety portion of the spectrum, said earlier this month it continues to support the FCC plan for the D block. The FCC should "do all that it can" to advance the public-private partnership meant to bring about the nationwide public safety broadband network, said Harlin McEwen, the PSST's chairman, in a statement. "While it would not be appropriate for the PSST to comment on any potential bidder’s strategy, we want to restate our enthusiasm for and commitment to what the FCC has done."
In the C block, the FCC required that winning bidders operate under open-access rules, meaning the winning bidder must allow any legal devices to connect to the network and allow customers to access any legal Web content of their choosing. Google, which pushed for the open-access rules, has pledged to bid at least US$4.6 billion for the C block, and the FCC later set that figure as the minimum price it will accept.
FCC rules prohibit potential bidders such as Google from commenting on their spectrum plans in the run up to the auction. Bidding is anonymous, but the FCC will release some information about the auctions at its auction Web page.
But several wireless industry observers have suggested that Google may not want to win the C block spectrum. Google, by getting the FCC to adopt the open-access rules and by pushing Verizon Wireless and AT&T to open up their current wireless networks to outside devices and applications, has already accomplished much of what it has wanted, Taylor said.
"I think it's fairly widely believed that [Google] doesn't really want to be the actual carrier," Taylor said. "That doesn't mean they still wouldn't buy spectrum and then work with somebody else who's a carrier."
A subcontracting arrangement with a wireless carrier would make sense for Google, she said.
Blair Levin, a telecom analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., also doubts Google will be a major player in the C block bidding. With the U.S. stock markets tanking in recent weeks, Google may not want to spend $10 billion to build a national network, he said, referring to the estimated cost.
Before the FCC set the auction rules in July, Google had also inquired about the legality of selling spectrum on a wholesale basis. The FCC ruled that such a plan would be legal.
In addition to the current wireless giants AT&T and Verizon Wireless, other companies to watch are the cable television providers, satellite TV providers and handset maker Qualcomm, Taylor said. Qualcomm and cable provider Cox were among the 214 bidders approved by the FCC this month.
Look for wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon to bid defensively, she said. "If the traditional mobile carriers really are the final winners of most of the spectrum, then nothing interesting happens," she said. "They don't want to see some major new entrant coming in."
Falling stock prices on Wall Street may discourage some competing bidders, with the auction coming at "precisely a bad time" for investment in a new nationwide network, Taylor said. But these auctions may be the last chance for a third nationwide broadband network, she added.
The 700MHz spectrum band carries wireless broadband signals three to four times farther than some higher spectrum bands, making it perfect for long-range broadband networks. "If you're going to build a green-field network from scratch, you want to build it at low megahertz like this," Taylor said. "If anybody was seriously considering launching a fully new competitor ... from scratch, this is the chance. There isn't going to be another one, probably."
Other questions will also be answered in coming weeks as the auctions, for 62MHz of long-range, high-speed spectrum, unfold. Will Google or another bidder buy enough spectrum to launch a "third pipe" broadband network? Will any bidders step forward and pledge to build a nationwide broadband and voice network for emergency response agencies?
The bids to watch in the 700MHz auctions are for the C block, a 22MHz band of spectrum broken up into 12 regional licenses, and the D block, 10MHz of auctioned spectrum paired with another 10MHz set aside for a combined national commercial/emergency response agency network. Startup Frontline Wireless, one of the primary backers of the public-private model for an emergency responder network, announced in December that it had ceased operations.
"The pull-out of Frontline leaves the whole D Block auction up in the air," analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates said in an e-mail. "There is no way to know if a last minute group will come on board. While the goal of establishing a universal network for public safety/security is a laudable goal, it is not the most lucrative area from a pure business perspective, so it is not clear how much demand there might be or who might step up to the plate to make this work."
The FCC may have made a mistake in adopting the plan by Frontline, a company with former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt as its vice chairman, said Carlyn Taylor, a senior managing director in business consultancy FTI's corporate finance practice.
"I'm not sure how well [Frontline's plan] hung together from a financial standpoint," Taylor said. "I'm not sure anybody else is going to try to do what Frontline says they were going to do. There doesn't seem to be anybody else with a similar approach."
If any other company bids on the D block, it will be much less than the FCC would have received without the national public safety network build-out rules, Taylor said.
But the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), the nonprofit group of emergency response agency representatives that controls the public safety portion of the spectrum, said earlier this month it continues to support the FCC plan for the D block. The FCC should "do all that it can" to advance the public-private partnership meant to bring about the nationwide public safety broadband network, said Harlin McEwen, the PSST's chairman, in a statement. "While it would not be appropriate for the PSST to comment on any potential bidder’s strategy, we want to restate our enthusiasm for and commitment to what the FCC has done."
In the C block, the FCC required that winning bidders operate under open-access rules, meaning the winning bidder must allow any legal devices to connect to the network and allow customers to access any legal Web content of their choosing. Google, which pushed for the open-access rules, has pledged to bid at least US$4.6 billion for the C block, and the FCC later set that figure as the minimum price it will accept.
FCC rules prohibit potential bidders such as Google from commenting on their spectrum plans in the run up to the auction. Bidding is anonymous, but the FCC will release some information about the auctions at its auction Web page.
But several wireless industry observers have suggested that Google may not want to win the C block spectrum. Google, by getting the FCC to adopt the open-access rules and by pushing Verizon Wireless and AT&T to open up their current wireless networks to outside devices and applications, has already accomplished much of what it has wanted, Taylor said.
"I think it's fairly widely believed that [Google] doesn't really want to be the actual carrier," Taylor said. "That doesn't mean they still wouldn't buy spectrum and then work with somebody else who's a carrier."
A subcontracting arrangement with a wireless carrier would make sense for Google, she said.
Blair Levin, a telecom analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., also doubts Google will be a major player in the C block bidding. With the U.S. stock markets tanking in recent weeks, Google may not want to spend $10 billion to build a national network, he said, referring to the estimated cost.
Before the FCC set the auction rules in July, Google had also inquired about the legality of selling spectrum on a wholesale basis. The FCC ruled that such a plan would be legal.
In addition to the current wireless giants AT&T and Verizon Wireless, other companies to watch are the cable television providers, satellite TV providers and handset maker Qualcomm, Taylor said. Qualcomm and cable provider Cox were among the 214 bidders approved by the FCC this month.
Look for wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon to bid defensively, she said. "If the traditional mobile carriers really are the final winners of most of the spectrum, then nothing interesting happens," she said. "They don't want to see some major new entrant coming in."
Falling stock prices on Wall Street may discourage some competing bidders, with the auction coming at "precisely a bad time" for investment in a new nationwide network, Taylor said. But these auctions may be the last chance for a third nationwide broadband network, she added.
The 700MHz spectrum band carries wireless broadband signals three to four times farther than some higher spectrum bands, making it perfect for long-range broadband networks. "If you're going to build a green-field network from scratch, you want to build it at low megahertz like this," Taylor said. "If anybody was seriously considering launching a fully new competitor ... from scratch, this is the chance. There isn't going to be another one, probably."
US FTC settles with company over Ethernet patent claims
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled a complaint against a company that owns patents to a widely used Ethernet standard, saying the patent owner was attempting to collect huge license fees despite a prior commitment to the contrary.
The settlement with Negotiated Data Solutions, or N-Data, will protect computer users from higher prices and ensure competition, the FTC said in a news release.
N-Data, in 2003, had obtained two Ethernet patents from Vertical Networks, a spin-off of National Semiconductor. N-Data attempted to collect larger patent license fees than National Semiconductor had negotiated with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a standards body, back in 1994, the FTC said.
National promised the IEEE that if the group adopted a standard based on National's NWay technology, National would offer one-time licenses of US$1,0000 per company to computer manufacturers and sellers of products using the IEEE standard. But N-Data and Vertical Networks had begun collecting license fees "far in excess" of $1,000 per company, according to the FTC complaint.
N-Data obtained the patents knowing about National's commitment, and realizing the computer industry had become committed to the standard, the FTC said. N-Data refused to comply with National's commitment, and it began demanding royalties after it became expensive and difficult for the industry to switch to another standard, the FTC said in its complaint.
The settlement bars N-Data from enforcing the patents unless it has first offered the patent license based on the terms offered in 1994.
In addition to higher prices, consumers would be hurt by N-Data because the company's actions would cast doubt on the reliability of standards-setting agreements, the FTC said. "The cost of ignoring this particularly pernicious problem is too high," the commission majority wrote.
Vertical Networks, which ceased operations after it turned the patent over to N-Data, had estimated that more than 70 percent of the world's Ethernet port shipments used the NWay Ethernet patents. In early 2002, Vertical Networks set letters to more than 60 companies demanding additional licensing fees, according to the FTC complaint.
NWay technology allows two devices at opposite ends of a LAN link to exchange information and automatically configure themselves to optimize their communication, a process sometimes called autonegotiation. Standardizing on a single autonegotiation technology allowed devices made by different manufacturers to work with one another and with different generations of Ethernet equipment.
N-Data, based in Chicago, didn't immediately respond to a request for comments on the FTC settlement.
The FTC voted 3-2 to approve the settlement. N-Data violated federal law by engaging in unfair methods of competition, the FTC said.
FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras voted against the settlement, saying the majority didn't establish an unfair method of competition. "The novel use of our consumer protection authority to protect large corporate members of a standard-setting organization is insupportable," she wrote in her dissent.
The settlement with Negotiated Data Solutions, or N-Data, will protect computer users from higher prices and ensure competition, the FTC said in a news release.
N-Data, in 2003, had obtained two Ethernet patents from Vertical Networks, a spin-off of National Semiconductor. N-Data attempted to collect larger patent license fees than National Semiconductor had negotiated with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a standards body, back in 1994, the FTC said.
National promised the IEEE that if the group adopted a standard based on National's NWay technology, National would offer one-time licenses of US$1,0000 per company to computer manufacturers and sellers of products using the IEEE standard. But N-Data and Vertical Networks had begun collecting license fees "far in excess" of $1,000 per company, according to the FTC complaint.
N-Data obtained the patents knowing about National's commitment, and realizing the computer industry had become committed to the standard, the FTC said. N-Data refused to comply with National's commitment, and it began demanding royalties after it became expensive and difficult for the industry to switch to another standard, the FTC said in its complaint.
The settlement bars N-Data from enforcing the patents unless it has first offered the patent license based on the terms offered in 1994.
In addition to higher prices, consumers would be hurt by N-Data because the company's actions would cast doubt on the reliability of standards-setting agreements, the FTC said. "The cost of ignoring this particularly pernicious problem is too high," the commission majority wrote.
Vertical Networks, which ceased operations after it turned the patent over to N-Data, had estimated that more than 70 percent of the world's Ethernet port shipments used the NWay Ethernet patents. In early 2002, Vertical Networks set letters to more than 60 companies demanding additional licensing fees, according to the FTC complaint.
NWay technology allows two devices at opposite ends of a LAN link to exchange information and automatically configure themselves to optimize their communication, a process sometimes called autonegotiation. Standardizing on a single autonegotiation technology allowed devices made by different manufacturers to work with one another and with different generations of Ethernet equipment.
N-Data, based in Chicago, didn't immediately respond to a request for comments on the FTC settlement.
The FTC voted 3-2 to approve the settlement. N-Data violated federal law by engaging in unfair methods of competition, the FTC said.
FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras voted against the settlement, saying the majority didn't establish an unfair method of competition. "The novel use of our consumer protection authority to protect large corporate members of a standard-setting organization is insupportable," she wrote in her dissent.
Falling phone sales hit Motorola Q4 results
Motorola's mobile-phone business continued to lose its signal in the fourth quarter, dragging the company's revenue and profit down.
The Schaumburg, Illinois, company has had trouble coming up with a phone to match the success of its original Razr, which is now several years old and does little for the company's bottom line. Motorola's Mobile Devices unit had sales of US$4.8 billion in the fourth quarter, down from $7.8 billion a year earlier, and the division lost $388 million compared with profit of $341 million in last year's fourth quarter.
Stronger results with enterprise and home-network products eased Motorola's pain, but the company still reported a steep fall in profit for the quarter and a loss for the full year 2007. In the fourth quarter, Motorola had net income of $100 million and earnings per share of $0.04, down from $529 million or $0.25 a year earlier. The company lost $49 million or $0.02 per share for the year. Companywide, revenue in the quarter fell to $9.6 billion from $11.8 billion a year earlier.
The outlook for the current quarter is no better. Along with Wednesday's earnings report, Motorola forecast a loss of between $0.05 per share and $0.07 per share, excluding charges associated with its cost-reduction initiatives and other items.
"The recovery in Mobile Devices will take longer than expected and there is a lot more work to be done," CEO Greg Brown said in a prepared statement. The company's "primary focus" is to improve profits and enhance its mobile products, he added. Motorola is also focused on reducing costs and took several steps to make the Mobile Devices business more efficient, he said.
Once locked in a struggle with Nokia for cell-phone sales leadership, Motorola had fallen to third place behind Samsung by last year's third quarter. Last May, when it introduced the Razr's successor, called the Razr2, the company said it hoped the new device would cut losses. But tough times have continued in the face of Apple's iPhone and other high-profile competitors, and in late November, CEO Ed Zander was replaced by Brown.
Fourth-quarter sales were up in both the Home and Networks Mobility group, which makes set-top boxes and wireless infrastructure, and in Enterprise Mobility, which benefitted from Motorola's acquisition of Symbol Technologies early last year. The home business saw sales rise 11 percent to $2.7 billion, though its profit fell to $192 million. Profit in the home business soared to $451 million from $323 million in the fourth quarter of 2006, while sales were up 35 percent to $2.1 billion.
In midday trading Wednesday, Motorola's shares on the New York Stock Exchange were down $2.32 to $10.00 amid a generally weak day on Wall Street.
The Schaumburg, Illinois, company has had trouble coming up with a phone to match the success of its original Razr, which is now several years old and does little for the company's bottom line. Motorola's Mobile Devices unit had sales of US$4.8 billion in the fourth quarter, down from $7.8 billion a year earlier, and the division lost $388 million compared with profit of $341 million in last year's fourth quarter.
Stronger results with enterprise and home-network products eased Motorola's pain, but the company still reported a steep fall in profit for the quarter and a loss for the full year 2007. In the fourth quarter, Motorola had net income of $100 million and earnings per share of $0.04, down from $529 million or $0.25 a year earlier. The company lost $49 million or $0.02 per share for the year. Companywide, revenue in the quarter fell to $9.6 billion from $11.8 billion a year earlier.
The outlook for the current quarter is no better. Along with Wednesday's earnings report, Motorola forecast a loss of between $0.05 per share and $0.07 per share, excluding charges associated with its cost-reduction initiatives and other items.
"The recovery in Mobile Devices will take longer than expected and there is a lot more work to be done," CEO Greg Brown said in a prepared statement. The company's "primary focus" is to improve profits and enhance its mobile products, he added. Motorola is also focused on reducing costs and took several steps to make the Mobile Devices business more efficient, he said.
Once locked in a struggle with Nokia for cell-phone sales leadership, Motorola had fallen to third place behind Samsung by last year's third quarter. Last May, when it introduced the Razr's successor, called the Razr2, the company said it hoped the new device would cut losses. But tough times have continued in the face of Apple's iPhone and other high-profile competitors, and in late November, CEO Ed Zander was replaced by Brown.
Fourth-quarter sales were up in both the Home and Networks Mobility group, which makes set-top boxes and wireless infrastructure, and in Enterprise Mobility, which benefitted from Motorola's acquisition of Symbol Technologies early last year. The home business saw sales rise 11 percent to $2.7 billion, though its profit fell to $192 million. Profit in the home business soared to $451 million from $323 million in the fourth quarter of 2006, while sales were up 35 percent to $2.1 billion.
In midday trading Wednesday, Motorola's shares on the New York Stock Exchange were down $2.32 to $10.00 amid a generally weak day on Wall Street.
FCC auction draws repeat entrepreneurs
A handful of people who bid in the disastrous C-Block PCS auction in 1996 plan to participate in the upcoming 700MHz contest, despite warning signs indicating the potential for similar troubles.
Like the earlier auction, the 700MHz auction is set to occur in a faltering economy, presenting challenges to license hopefuls needing cash. Yet, just like that ill-fated auction more than 10 years ago, an oddball collection of participants plan to bid, this time including the Missouri Farmers' Union, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Disney.
The C-Block PCS auction was infamous because it was designed not just for companies with access to billions of dollars, but for entrepreneurs interested in getting into the wireless industry. Postal carriers, lawyers and doctors quit their day jobs and invested their savings, confident that U.S. Federal Communications Commission incentives would help them make it big.
But the auction turned into a debacle. Of the original 255 bidders, 89 emerged with licenses and only a handful of them actually started businesses. The rest went bankrupt, sold their licenses for pennies on the dollar or returned them to the FCC in an amnesty program.
Take Vince McBride, an approved bidder for the upcoming 700MHz auction who lives in San Diego and has won and lost in several auctions. "There are ups and downs but I keep trying," he said.
McBride was a postal carrier who sunk his life savings into the PCS auction in 1996. A series of lawsuits delayed the auction and then the award of licenses. During that time, Wall Street soured on the wireless market and license winners, who bid prices sky high based on attractive payment terms set by the FCC, struggled to finance their wins. McBride got lucky and returned his licenses to the FCC for little loss.
Then the FCC reauctioned licenses and McBride won a new one, which he managed to sell for a nice profit. But in a subsequent reauction he won another license that was later repossessed by the FCC, which was forced to give it back to the original winner after a series of lawsuits.
McBride's sometime partner Scott Reiter, an emergency room physician who splits his time between Santa Monica and the Philippines, has had a similar series of wins and losses in FCC auctions. He too plans to bid in the upcoming auction. Reiter won a few licenses back in 1996 and shortly after got a few good offers from operators interested in buying them.
"I got greedy, basically," he said. He held out for better offers, which didn't come, and eventually had to sell his licenses at a loss.
Reiter was undeterred, though. He entered the 2002 auctions for 700MHz licenses, back before there was a solid deadline for when TV broadcasters had to vacate the spectrum. He bought licenses in three markets, later selling the spectrum for a nice profit to AT&T.
"When I bought that spectrum, it went up in value like crazy," Reiter said. McBride also won 700MHz licenses then, later selling them to AT&T. They both agreed with AT&T not to disclose the purchase price.
Bidders are currently in a quiet period during which the FCC forbids them to discuss their plans for the upcoming auction. But some of them say that because this time around there is a fixed date for when the spectrum will be available to buyers -- 2009, after the TV broadcasters must vacate it -- the value is easier to gauge than in the previous 700MHz auction. However, it may be difficult for some bidders to get credit these days, which could help keep prices down, they say.
While many of the individual bidders insist they intend to build networks if they win the spectrum, many likely have other plans. "I think many of them want to buy and resell it," said Nadine Manjaro, a senior analyst with ABI Research. A look at the result of the earlier 700MHz auctions, which distributed what's thought to be less valuable portions of the band, could be spurring big dreams for bidders.
Aloha Partners, one of the biggest winners in those auctions, sold its licenses to AT&T for US$2.5 billion late last year. Aloha spent over $40 million at the auctions but also later bought licenses from other companies for undisclosed amounts. It is thought to have made a handsome profit.
While much attention has been focused on the billions that big companies like Google had to put up to enter the 700MHz auction, some of the licenses could go for quite cheap, which could be attracting some of the individuals hoping to turn around and sell the licenses for a profit. Some licenses in small markets require as little as $10,000 in an up-front payment, Manjaro said.
Still, for bidders with bigger aspirations, the sinking economy will likely harm their efforts, unless they already have secured funding. The recent collapse of Frontline Wireless, a company created by luminaries in the wireless industry to win 700MHz licenses, has raised concern among other bidders. "They had a really strong team of players and for them to not be able to secure the money shows the impact of the economy," Manjaro said.
One difference in the rules for this 700MHz auction compared to previous contests that could affect individuals who participate is that bidders will be anonymous. That could cut back on potential collusion, a problem that many have said plagued previous auctions.
Another auction change, however, likely works against the smaller players. This time, license winners have just four years to build out a portion of their networks. That's a relatively short amount of time for smaller winners to raise money and build a network.
A number of other license winners from the C-Block PCS auction are also approved to bid in the upcoming auction. Bill McKell, CEO for Horizon Chillicothe Telecom, an Ohio telecommunications provider, is on the list. His company was one of the first winners from the C-Block PCS auction to launch a network, but later it returned the licenses to the FCC.
These previous bidders seem prepared to go ahead with this auction despite warning signs that the market might not work in their favor, just like in the PCS auction from 1996. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin recently acknowledged that poor economic conditions could impact the auction because bidders might struggle to raise capital.
But these smaller bidders must be gamblers. "Sometimes you get lucky," McBride said.
Like the earlier auction, the 700MHz auction is set to occur in a faltering economy, presenting challenges to license hopefuls needing cash. Yet, just like that ill-fated auction more than 10 years ago, an oddball collection of participants plan to bid, this time including the Missouri Farmers' Union, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Disney.
The C-Block PCS auction was infamous because it was designed not just for companies with access to billions of dollars, but for entrepreneurs interested in getting into the wireless industry. Postal carriers, lawyers and doctors quit their day jobs and invested their savings, confident that U.S. Federal Communications Commission incentives would help them make it big.
But the auction turned into a debacle. Of the original 255 bidders, 89 emerged with licenses and only a handful of them actually started businesses. The rest went bankrupt, sold their licenses for pennies on the dollar or returned them to the FCC in an amnesty program.
Take Vince McBride, an approved bidder for the upcoming 700MHz auction who lives in San Diego and has won and lost in several auctions. "There are ups and downs but I keep trying," he said.
McBride was a postal carrier who sunk his life savings into the PCS auction in 1996. A series of lawsuits delayed the auction and then the award of licenses. During that time, Wall Street soured on the wireless market and license winners, who bid prices sky high based on attractive payment terms set by the FCC, struggled to finance their wins. McBride got lucky and returned his licenses to the FCC for little loss.
Then the FCC reauctioned licenses and McBride won a new one, which he managed to sell for a nice profit. But in a subsequent reauction he won another license that was later repossessed by the FCC, which was forced to give it back to the original winner after a series of lawsuits.
McBride's sometime partner Scott Reiter, an emergency room physician who splits his time between Santa Monica and the Philippines, has had a similar series of wins and losses in FCC auctions. He too plans to bid in the upcoming auction. Reiter won a few licenses back in 1996 and shortly after got a few good offers from operators interested in buying them.
"I got greedy, basically," he said. He held out for better offers, which didn't come, and eventually had to sell his licenses at a loss.
Reiter was undeterred, though. He entered the 2002 auctions for 700MHz licenses, back before there was a solid deadline for when TV broadcasters had to vacate the spectrum. He bought licenses in three markets, later selling the spectrum for a nice profit to AT&T.
"When I bought that spectrum, it went up in value like crazy," Reiter said. McBride also won 700MHz licenses then, later selling them to AT&T. They both agreed with AT&T not to disclose the purchase price.
Bidders are currently in a quiet period during which the FCC forbids them to discuss their plans for the upcoming auction. But some of them say that because this time around there is a fixed date for when the spectrum will be available to buyers -- 2009, after the TV broadcasters must vacate it -- the value is easier to gauge than in the previous 700MHz auction. However, it may be difficult for some bidders to get credit these days, which could help keep prices down, they say.
While many of the individual bidders insist they intend to build networks if they win the spectrum, many likely have other plans. "I think many of them want to buy and resell it," said Nadine Manjaro, a senior analyst with ABI Research. A look at the result of the earlier 700MHz auctions, which distributed what's thought to be less valuable portions of the band, could be spurring big dreams for bidders.
Aloha Partners, one of the biggest winners in those auctions, sold its licenses to AT&T for US$2.5 billion late last year. Aloha spent over $40 million at the auctions but also later bought licenses from other companies for undisclosed amounts. It is thought to have made a handsome profit.
While much attention has been focused on the billions that big companies like Google had to put up to enter the 700MHz auction, some of the licenses could go for quite cheap, which could be attracting some of the individuals hoping to turn around and sell the licenses for a profit. Some licenses in small markets require as little as $10,000 in an up-front payment, Manjaro said.
Still, for bidders with bigger aspirations, the sinking economy will likely harm their efforts, unless they already have secured funding. The recent collapse of Frontline Wireless, a company created by luminaries in the wireless industry to win 700MHz licenses, has raised concern among other bidders. "They had a really strong team of players and for them to not be able to secure the money shows the impact of the economy," Manjaro said.
One difference in the rules for this 700MHz auction compared to previous contests that could affect individuals who participate is that bidders will be anonymous. That could cut back on potential collusion, a problem that many have said plagued previous auctions.
Another auction change, however, likely works against the smaller players. This time, license winners have just four years to build out a portion of their networks. That's a relatively short amount of time for smaller winners to raise money and build a network.
A number of other license winners from the C-Block PCS auction are also approved to bid in the upcoming auction. Bill McKell, CEO for Horizon Chillicothe Telecom, an Ohio telecommunications provider, is on the list. His company was one of the first winners from the C-Block PCS auction to launch a network, but later it returned the licenses to the FCC.
These previous bidders seem prepared to go ahead with this auction despite warning signs that the market might not work in their favor, just like in the PCS auction from 1996. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin recently acknowledged that poor economic conditions could impact the auction because bidders might struggle to raise capital.
But these smaller bidders must be gamblers. "Sometimes you get lucky," McBride said.
Mozilla says that flaw could lead to data leak
Mozilla is working to fix a browser flaw that could give attackers unauthorized access to data on a victim's machine.
The problem is similar to other data leakage flaws found in the open-source browser, according to researcher Gerry Eisenhaur, who first reported the problem on Saturday.
Eisenhaur has posted sample code that reads the contents of a Mozilla Thunderbird preferences file, but he believes that attackers could get access to more information with variations on his attack. "It's possible to load any JavaScript file on a victim's machine," he wrote in his blog posting. "This looks very interesting and may have bigger potential, but for now, it's just another information disclosure [flaw]."
"It could become something more if there was an application that stored sensitive data inside JavaScript files," he said via instant message. "Some plugins have been known to store usernames and passwords."
"Its also just a powerful way to do recon," he added.
Hackers have discovered a number of flaws in recent months that take advantage of the way that browsers pass information between different components within the Windows operating system. Some of these URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) protocol handler flaws have led to serious security problems for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.
This latest flaw affects only certain Firefox add-ons, such as the Download Statusbar or Greasemonkey, which store scripts in a fashion that lets them be discovered on the hard drive, said Window Snyder, Mozilla's security chief in a Wednesday blog posting.
Firefox is investigating the issue and has rated it as a low-severity problem, she said.
The problem is similar to other data leakage flaws found in the open-source browser, according to researcher Gerry Eisenhaur, who first reported the problem on Saturday.
Eisenhaur has posted sample code that reads the contents of a Mozilla Thunderbird preferences file, but he believes that attackers could get access to more information with variations on his attack. "It's possible to load any JavaScript file on a victim's machine," he wrote in his blog posting. "This looks very interesting and may have bigger potential, but for now, it's just another information disclosure [flaw]."
"It could become something more if there was an application that stored sensitive data inside JavaScript files," he said via instant message. "Some plugins have been known to store usernames and passwords."
"Its also just a powerful way to do recon," he added.
Hackers have discovered a number of flaws in recent months that take advantage of the way that browsers pass information between different components within the Windows operating system. Some of these URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) protocol handler flaws have led to serious security problems for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.
This latest flaw affects only certain Firefox add-ons, such as the Download Statusbar or Greasemonkey, which store scripts in a fashion that lets them be discovered on the hard drive, said Window Snyder, Mozilla's security chief in a Wednesday blog posting.
Firefox is investigating the issue and has rated it as a low-severity problem, she said.
IBM buys complex-event processing vendor for SOA
IBM said Wednesday it is expanding its broad SOA (service-oriented architecture) portfolio with the acquisition of AptSoft, a maker of business event processing software.
AptSoft's products will sit in IBM's WebSphere line. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Also known as complex event processing (CEP), business event processing is seen as a key technology driver for the next generation of SOA. The software analyzes vast amounts of system events in real time, searching for trends and anomalies -- "complex events" -- that may impact the business, and triggers a response process if one is found.
For example, the technology could be used by an online gaming site to spot malfeasance among the torrent of transactions that occur each second, or by a trading firm to track minute changes in stock price activity among various markets, IBM said in a statement.
IBM executives are planning to reveal more about the acquisition during a conference call Wednesday at 1:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
Other companies in the CEP/BEP market include Tibco and Streambase.
AptSoft's products will sit in IBM's WebSphere line. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Also known as complex event processing (CEP), business event processing is seen as a key technology driver for the next generation of SOA. The software analyzes vast amounts of system events in real time, searching for trends and anomalies -- "complex events" -- that may impact the business, and triggers a response process if one is found.
For example, the technology could be used by an online gaming site to spot malfeasance among the torrent of transactions that occur each second, or by a trading firm to track minute changes in stock price activity among various markets, IBM said in a statement.
IBM executives are planning to reveal more about the acquisition during a conference call Wednesday at 1:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
Other companies in the CEP/BEP market include Tibco and Streambase.
Dell, Microsoft team up on (Red) PCs
Dell will sell special crimson-red versions of its XPS line of computers to raise money for AIDS treatment programs in Africa, the company confirmed Tuesday.
Dell is working with Microsoft on the project, which is expected to be announced later this week during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, wrote Lionel Menchaca, digital media manager at Dell.
Sales of the computers will benefit (Red), a project started by U2 singer Bono and Bobby Shriver, chairman of the Africa-focused charity Debt AIDS Trade Africa.
Companies such as Motorola, Apple and the clothing retailer The Gap have released (Red) versions of their products. Proceeds from the sales go to The Global Fund, a health organization focusing on AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Dell will offer the XPS M1530 and M1330 notebooks and the XPS One desktop under the (Red) product line. The PCs will run Microsoft's Vista Ultimate (Product) Red, according to Microsoft.
The Global Fund will receive US$50 for every laptop sold, enough money for four months of antiretroviral medication. Every desktop sold will net the fund $80, according to Microsoft.
Dell is working with Microsoft on the project, which is expected to be announced later this week during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, wrote Lionel Menchaca, digital media manager at Dell.
Sales of the computers will benefit (Red), a project started by U2 singer Bono and Bobby Shriver, chairman of the Africa-focused charity Debt AIDS Trade Africa.
Companies such as Motorola, Apple and the clothing retailer The Gap have released (Red) versions of their products. Proceeds from the sales go to The Global Fund, a health organization focusing on AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Dell will offer the XPS M1530 and M1330 notebooks and the XPS One desktop under the (Red) product line. The PCs will run Microsoft's Vista Ultimate (Product) Red, according to Microsoft.
The Global Fund will receive US$50 for every laptop sold, enough money for four months of antiretroviral medication. Every desktop sold will net the fund $80, according to Microsoft.
Phishing kit pits wannabe scammers vs. pro fraudsters
In a twist, security researchers have discovered a group of hackers who are exploiting a new category of victims -- aspiring Internet scammers.
A Moroccan group called "Mr. Brain" is offering free phishing kits on a Web site hosted in France, said Paul Mutton, Internet services developer at Netcraft, a security company in Bath, England.
The software packages make it easy to quickly set up a fraudulent Web site mimicking a known brand in order to trick people into divulging credit card details or bank account numbers. Templates for spam e-mail are also included, targeting brands such as Bank of America, eBay, PayPal and HSBC.
Mr. Brain's Web site lists the kits and what kind of details each one is capable of collecting, such as usernames, passwords or Social Security numbers. Netcraft posted screenshots on its Web site.
But what the aspiring scammer doesn't know is that the phishing kits are designed to send any sensitive information that's collected back to e-mail accounts controlled by Mr. Brain, Mutton said.
"Obviously, that's why they are offering this stuff for free," Mutton said. "I was impressed by it."
Mr. Brain hides the special e-mail function in a blend of PHP scripts, one of which is encrypted, Mutton said. Just in case someone decrypts it, Mr. Brain has written at the top of the file "Don't need to change anything here. Created by Mr. Brain Morocco Team."
The scheme seems to be targeted at new phishers, Mutton said. Mr. Brain benefits since other wannabe scammers shoulder the cost and risk of finding an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to host the phishing site, Mutton said.
"Essentially, they're exploiting all these novice phishers -- basically getting them to do all the hard work," Mutton said.
It's difficult to tell without further research how many of the free phishing kits linked with this latest scam are live on the Internet, but Mutton said Netcraft noticed one earlier this month targeting Bank of America.
"Clearly, these are actively being used in phishing attacks," Mutton said.
A Moroccan group called "Mr. Brain" is offering free phishing kits on a Web site hosted in France, said Paul Mutton, Internet services developer at Netcraft, a security company in Bath, England.
The software packages make it easy to quickly set up a fraudulent Web site mimicking a known brand in order to trick people into divulging credit card details or bank account numbers. Templates for spam e-mail are also included, targeting brands such as Bank of America, eBay, PayPal and HSBC.
Mr. Brain's Web site lists the kits and what kind of details each one is capable of collecting, such as usernames, passwords or Social Security numbers. Netcraft posted screenshots on its Web site.
But what the aspiring scammer doesn't know is that the phishing kits are designed to send any sensitive information that's collected back to e-mail accounts controlled by Mr. Brain, Mutton said.
"Obviously, that's why they are offering this stuff for free," Mutton said. "I was impressed by it."
Mr. Brain hides the special e-mail function in a blend of PHP scripts, one of which is encrypted, Mutton said. Just in case someone decrypts it, Mr. Brain has written at the top of the file "Don't need to change anything here. Created by Mr. Brain Morocco Team."
The scheme seems to be targeted at new phishers, Mutton said. Mr. Brain benefits since other wannabe scammers shoulder the cost and risk of finding an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to host the phishing site, Mutton said.
"Essentially, they're exploiting all these novice phishers -- basically getting them to do all the hard work," Mutton said.
It's difficult to tell without further research how many of the free phishing kits linked with this latest scam are live on the Internet, but Mutton said Netcraft noticed one earlier this month targeting Bank of America.
"Clearly, these are actively being used in phishing attacks," Mutton said.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Spreading worm hits Nokia handsets
Security vendor Fortinet has uncovered a malicious SymbianOS Worm that is actively spreading on mobile phone networks.
Fortinet's threat response team warned on Monday that the worm, identified as SymbOS/Beselo.A!worm, is able to run on several Symbian S60 enabled devices. These include handsets such as Nokia 6600, 6630, 6680, 7610, N70 and N72 handsets.
The malware is disguised as a multimedia file (MMS) with an evocative name: either Beauty.jpg, Sex.mp3 or Love.rm. Fortinet warned this is deceiving users into unknowingly installing the malicious software onto their phones.
Unlike Microsoft Windows, SymbianOS types files based on their contents and not their extensions, so it is worth noting that recipients of infected MMS would still be presented with an installation dialogue upon "clicking" on the attachment. "Therefore, users could easily be deceived by the extension and unknowingly install the malicious piece of software," warned Fortinet.
After installation, the worm harvests all the phone numbers located in the phone's contact lists and targets them with a viral MMS carrying a SIS-packed (Symbian Installation Source) version of the worm. In addition to harvesting these numbers, the malware also sends itself to generated numbers as well.
Interestingly, all these numbers are located in China so far and belong to the same mobile phone operator. Some of these numbers have been verified to belong to actual customers, rather than being premium service numbers.
Guillaume Lovet, manager of Fortinet's Threat Response Team, EMEA, and the man who conducted the research and discovered this malicious activity, told Techworld that this is not just another 'theoretical' mobile worm that nobody will ever encounter.
"It is actual spreading in the wild," said Lovet, "although numbers are still pretty low." He confirmed that the worm only affects Symbian S60 enabled devices.
Lovet says Fortinet first became aware of the worm after one of his customers (a "large, large mobile operator") provided them with a sample. He says the worm seems to be spreading in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region, and Fortinet is investigating the Chinese angle, and is in touch with law enforcement officials.
"We really want to know why this worm is doing that (contacting Chinese mobile numbers)," said Lovet. "Perhaps it wants to seed itself pretty aggressively," he speculated.
"When you want to seed or inject worm in the wild, then you may want to seed in high populated areas," he continued. "The Chinese mobile operator concerned is the largest in the world with 300 million users, so maybe the virus writers thought it would be a good idea to go for mobiles in highly populated areas."
The advice from Lovet is simple. "Symbian users must not to say yes to any .jpg, .mp3, or .rm files trying to install themselves on your phone."
Of course, Fortinet says that its FortiClient Mobile automatically detects and removes the Beselo worm.
Fortunately, mobile malware is still pretty rare, but it has made the occasional appearance in the past, despite suspicions that these warnings were simply a way to promote a vendor's products.
A worm that could move from a Symbian phone to a PC was previously reported by security experts F-Secure in September 2006. Then in June last year, a 28-year-old man was arrested in Spain on charges that he created variants of the CommWarrior and Cabir mobile phone viruses.
Fortinet's threat response team warned on Monday that the worm, identified as SymbOS/Beselo.A!worm, is able to run on several Symbian S60 enabled devices. These include handsets such as Nokia 6600, 6630, 6680, 7610, N70 and N72 handsets.
The malware is disguised as a multimedia file (MMS) with an evocative name: either Beauty.jpg, Sex.mp3 or Love.rm. Fortinet warned this is deceiving users into unknowingly installing the malicious software onto their phones.
Unlike Microsoft Windows, SymbianOS types files based on their contents and not their extensions, so it is worth noting that recipients of infected MMS would still be presented with an installation dialogue upon "clicking" on the attachment. "Therefore, users could easily be deceived by the extension and unknowingly install the malicious piece of software," warned Fortinet.
After installation, the worm harvests all the phone numbers located in the phone's contact lists and targets them with a viral MMS carrying a SIS-packed (Symbian Installation Source) version of the worm. In addition to harvesting these numbers, the malware also sends itself to generated numbers as well.
Interestingly, all these numbers are located in China so far and belong to the same mobile phone operator. Some of these numbers have been verified to belong to actual customers, rather than being premium service numbers.
Guillaume Lovet, manager of Fortinet's Threat Response Team, EMEA, and the man who conducted the research and discovered this malicious activity, told Techworld that this is not just another 'theoretical' mobile worm that nobody will ever encounter.
"It is actual spreading in the wild," said Lovet, "although numbers are still pretty low." He confirmed that the worm only affects Symbian S60 enabled devices.
Lovet says Fortinet first became aware of the worm after one of his customers (a "large, large mobile operator") provided them with a sample. He says the worm seems to be spreading in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region, and Fortinet is investigating the Chinese angle, and is in touch with law enforcement officials.
"We really want to know why this worm is doing that (contacting Chinese mobile numbers)," said Lovet. "Perhaps it wants to seed itself pretty aggressively," he speculated.
"When you want to seed or inject worm in the wild, then you may want to seed in high populated areas," he continued. "The Chinese mobile operator concerned is the largest in the world with 300 million users, so maybe the virus writers thought it would be a good idea to go for mobiles in highly populated areas."
The advice from Lovet is simple. "Symbian users must not to say yes to any .jpg, .mp3, or .rm files trying to install themselves on your phone."
Of course, Fortinet says that its FortiClient Mobile automatically detects and removes the Beselo worm.
Fortunately, mobile malware is still pretty rare, but it has made the occasional appearance in the past, despite suspicions that these warnings were simply a way to promote a vendor's products.
A worm that could move from a Symbian phone to a PC was previously reported by security experts F-Secure in September 2006. Then in June last year, a 28-year-old man was arrested in Spain on charges that he created variants of the CommWarrior and Cabir mobile phone viruses.
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